South LA resident defying the odds

July 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment


Click on the photo below to watch an audio slideshow:

Monica Valencia is in one of the world’s most male dominated industries thousands of miles from home putting her life on the line and yet she’s content, confident, and entirely convinced that her dreams of higher education and success will come true.

Valencia is a South LA native from a divorced family with not a lot of money. In fact, her family was so poor that when Valencia graduated high school going to college was not an option, so she joined the Air Force.

Valencia spent three years in North Dakota learning how to fight against the rain, snow, and imaginary nuclear attacks. Then she put her skills to the test serving in Germany and South Korea. But no matter where she went, she refused to let her gender cap her potential. She was determined to do her job better than anybody else. She has five leadership awards to prove it.

When Valencia returned home to South LA she embarked on a new journey. She first attended Oxnard Community College for two years and then applied to her dream school – USC. Her dream came true. She’s currently a junior at USC who plans to become a professor of sociology.

Although statistics show that more women of color are earning college diplomas than ever before, Valencia still feels she defied the odds. This spring Valencia became the first veteran in the nation to win the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Award. She plans to use the award to study the sociological implications of Mexican immigration into the United States this summer.

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Dorsey High students dance into USC

April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment


imageListen to the audio story from Annenberg Radio News:

It’s Friday morning at Dorsey High School and second-year math teacher Edward Kusell-Zigelman (better known as Ed KZ) is about to start a class that has nothing to do with adding or subtracting.

“One of my coordinators proposed the idea to me last year to teach any elective I wanted. She said we have this empty space, empty class, what do you wanna teach?” he said.

For KZ, the choice was easy. He’s a member of Break-On 2, the University of Southern California’s premiere salsa performance group. So KZ started a Partner Dance Class at Dorsey last fall and it’s open to students of all shapes and sizes. That is good news for athletes like Jovonte Warren, who says that when his friends hear Jovonte is in dance class “they laugh because I’m freakishly tall and when they come here to see, everybody else is short.”

KZ’s Partner Dance Class makes Dorsey High one of the only schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District to have an organized dance class. But dancing isn’t the only thing the class teaches.

“This class in particular is something special for the kids, not just because it’s the arts but because it’s partner dance,” KZ said. “So what’s really neat and unique about this class and would be at any program at any high school is that they’re really learning how to socialize with each other.”

Whether it is dancing the tango, doing the cha cha, or shuffling to the salsa, KZ emphasizes the importance of social etiquette and mutual respect.

“It’s been pretty cool, I kinda opened up as a person. I used to be kinda like shy and stuff but now, dance… it helps me like be able to walk up to a person and make conversation,” said Shelton Sanders, a senior who says Partner Dance has helped him open up his social life.

“Mr. KZ came in and asked us about the dance team and he said it was with girls so I was like ‘Yeah, this is awesome!’”

Girls aren’t the only attractive aspect of the course. The Dorsey students get to interact with USC students and alumni through a mentorship program set up by KZ, a USC graduate of 2010. The High Schoolers recently visited USC to perform in USC’s Break-On 2 salsa club. Armand Jordan said the experience helped get him excited about attending college this fall.

“Through this program I was able to go to USC for one of the first times and meet some of the college students and listen to some of their experiences,” Jordan said. “It’s definitely made me want to go to college.”

Almost all of the Partner Dance students are college bound and we’re not talking about your average two-year community college. Many Partner Dance students are headed to prestigious universities such as UCLA, USC, and Stanford.

But KZ’s mentorship program doesn’t just benefit the students of partner dance.

Erika Soto graduated USC in 2011 and she mentors the Partner Dance students every week at Dorsey High School.

“Every student has a USC college mentor and we basically write to each other back and forth,” Soto said. “I feel like we’re making a really great impact on their lives. We’re really influencing them in a positive way and it also reminds me of who I’m trying to be and keeps me motivated to stay in a positive path and move forward in a positive direction.”

The Partner Dance class will return to USC this spring for another performance, this time at Bovard Auditorium for the Break-On 2 Showcase April 19th.

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Two rallies, one message: students and Angelinos call for justice for Trayvon Martin

March 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment


Listen to the audio story from Annenberg Radio News:

image“It’s been 32 days since neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman claims he acted in self defense. But USC student Matthew Gray doesn’t buy Zimmerman’s argument.

“Just self defense is just not going to fly with me,” said Gray. “Because he’s at least 100 pounds heavier than Trayvon. Through different people who have seen the incident, he attacked Trayvon verses Travyon attacking him so it all just doesn’t add up.”

According to the Sanford Police Report, Zimmerman claims Martin looked suspicious wearing a hoodie in the rain inside a gated community. Police say Martin was unarmed and was only carrying a packet of skittles and an ice tea. BUT Zimmerman chose follow him and an altercation ensued.

Eddie Jones Jr., the President of the Los Angeles Civil Rights Association, led a protest today in Crenshaw.

“How dare Zimmerman have the audacity take a loaded 9 millimeter weapon,” said Jones. “ That’s a premeditated conspiracy to commit murder on a young person that was completely innocent.”

But according to some eyewitness accounts and a police investigation, Zimmerman may not have killed Martin in cold blood. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the police reports say Martin punched Zimmerman in the face and then slammed Zimmerman’s head against the sidewalk.

However, the Orlando Sentinel released a video from a security camera that shows police escorting a handcuffed Zimmerman into an interrogation room the night after the killing. Zimmerman has no visible head injuries.

Rachel Zolensky is the president of a brand new USC club called the Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE). She says Travyon’s case is a manifestation of American institutional racism.

“You know this isn’t the first case where something like this has happened. There’s a history in the United States of Black Life not being valued the same as White life.”

USC students will gathered on campus on Thursday night for a candlelight vigil in Trayvon’s honor.

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